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Reviews

Following Aardman Animations’ most notable triumphs, such as Wallace And Gromit, Chicken Run and most recently Arthur Christmas, they make their latest motion picture in their second consecutive collaboration with Sony Pictures Animations, but first stop-motion film in seven years. After the hilarious trailer and appearing to bring forth the charm, the jokes and the breath-taking stop-motion pie... read more

I've never quite enjoyed Aardman's work as much as critics. At least, not their full-length films. That's not to say I haven't liked them; I've liked them, but I certainly haven't loved them. Pirates: Band Of Misfits is different, though. This movie, I did love.

None of the primary pirates are given names; their descriptions in the credits are "The Pirate With The Scarf," "The Pira... read more

Appreciating Aardman films seems to be easier for a certain, shall we say, less colonial segment of the movie watching population. The humor is oft-described as simply "British" whatever that actually means. Strangely, despite my avowed love of the Monty Python films, Aardman just hasn't done it for me. Sure I enjoyed Chicken Run and I tolerated Wallace and Gromit because of the neat characteri... read more

Description:After years of humiliation and failed attempts to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award, Pirate Captain and his oddball crew take on the cream of the pirating crop - Black Bellamy, Peg Leg Hastings and Cutlass Liz - in a race to pillage the most booty. They soon cross paths with lovelorn scientist Charles Darwin, who persuades the After years of humiliation and failed attempts to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award, Pirate Captain and his oddball crew take on the cream of the pirating crop - Black Bellamy, Peg Leg Hastings and Cutlass Liz - in a race to pillage the most booty. They soon cross paths with lovelorn scientist Charles Darwin, who persuades the Captain that the crew's prized 'parrot', Polly, could be the answer to the 'untold riches' they are searching for. Their adventure takes them to Victorian London where they meet Darwin's sidekick 'man-panzee' Mister Bobo, and the notorious pirate-hating Queen Victoria herself. It soon unfolds that Darwin's motives for helping the crew are not what they seem, and the Queen has an evil hidden agenda of her own. The Pirate Captain must choose between basking in the glory of being crowned Pirate of the Year, or staying faithful to his trusted crew.... (more)(less)

“It seems that Aardman can’t manage to catch a break. Indeed, except for Wallace & Gromit, their other productions don’t seem to be really successful and this flick was unfortunately not an exception. Still, since I have always been a fan of their work, above all of their stop-motion features, I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was actually rather disappointing. Of course, the animation was, as usual, amazing, no doubt about it, but I had a hard time to care about the story and the characters. I don’t know, it definitely had some potential but I thought that it was nothing really mind-blowing. I have to admit it, I have seen it in Dutch so it might be more fun in the original English so I will see the original version in the near future to make up my mind for” read more

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86% on Rotten Tomatoes. I was completely bored throughout when I was watching this film and it's a shame since it's Aardman animations and I know they put so much effort with their claymation style of animating and it looks ambitiously great animation wise. The story was underwhelming, the jokes were sub-par and the characters were completely wasted upon. They aren't bad characters, in fact they are really good but the problem was that they felt underutilised and that frustrated me quite a lot"

"Since I was very young I have loved Aardman Animations but I greatly preferred their numerous exceptional short films ('The Wrong Trousers' being one of the great masterpieces of the medium) to their disappointing features. I even found the much praised Wallace and Gromit feature 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit' to be overstretched and half-hearted. So I was delighted to see this cracking and extremely funny film live up to the charm of Aradman's short film catalogue.
Chock full of gags, many of th"

"I'm a huge fan of stop-motion and the animation in this film is terrific. Every puppet, set and detail is masterfully crafted and flawlessly animated. That's why it's such a shame to see it getting wasted in this film. It doesn't deserve its own spectacular animation. Because, despite what one might think, a good story is still more important. The story in this film isn't engaging on any level. It feels like a short film that's been stretched out to a feature film without actually adding anythin"

""Behind every captain, there's a crew. Sure, some of you are as ugly as a sea cucumber, some of you are closer to being a chair or coat rack than a pirate, and some of you are fish I've just dressed up in a hat."
@ Blu-ray
I'm a huge fan of stop-motion and the animation in this film is terrific. Every puppet, set and detail is masterfully crafted and flawlessly animated. That's why it's such a shame to see it getting wasted in this film. It doesn't deserve its own spectacular animation. Becaus"

“Appreciating Aardman films seems to be easier for a certain, shall we say, less colonial segment of the movie watching population. The humor is oft-described as simply "British" whatever that actually means. Strangely, despite my avowed love of the Monty Python films, Aardman just hasn't done it for me. Sure I enjoyed Chicken Run and I tolerated Wallace and Gromit because of the neat characterizations but a movie like The Pirates! Band of Misfits just doesn't draw me in. The humor is mostly throwaway one liners stuffed into a very flimsy plot about Pirate Captain trying to become the pirate of the year. These attempts at humor rarely even elicited a chuckle - they just kind of flopped around on the deck of a nicely animated pirate ship. This doesn't mean there aren't redeeming qualit” read more

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Directors: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt
Cast: Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, David Tennant, Martin Freeman
What's it about?: Pirate Captain sets out on a mission to defeat his rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz for the Pirate of the year Award. The quest takes Captain and his crew from the shores of Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London.
Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film of the Year - Peter Lord
Won: 0"

"Friday, August 3rd
As usual, I adore claymation and find it simply fascinating to watch, so I naturally liked this movie. The storyline was funny and kept my attention.
I probably would have rated this higher if I had seen a copy with better audio (whoever did the one that I got kept eating chips, rustling a bag, and talking to her small child)"

“I've never quite enjoyed Aardman's work as much as critics. At least, not their full-length films. That's not to say I haven't liked them; I've liked them, but I certainly haven't loved them. Pirates: Band Of Misfits is different, though. This movie, I did love.

None of the primary pirates are given names; their descriptions in the credits are "The Pirate With The Scarf," "The Pirate With Gout," etc., which makes this plot description a little difficult to write.

The protagonist, Pirate Captain (no really, that's his name) is determined to win the pirate of the year contest. The problem; he's not a very good pirate. And with his competition being so strong, it appears the odds are against him. At least, that's what he thinks. It turns out, his trusty, rotund parrot is” read more

"First viewing - April 29th
While I wouldn't classify this as a Great animated film, it's solidly entertaining throughout. The stop-motion animation is excellent, there are plenty of laughs to be had (especially if you pay attention to various signs and posters in the backgrounds), & it's a fun adventure movie. I can't say it delivered anything new or hit me on an emotional level, but aside from that there's nothing I can say against it. If you're looking for a good time & brief escape via a mov"